Oakland Hills Country Club is celebrating its centennial. So, it’s only fitting the 100-year-old facility where golf’s most revered players have shown their skills will host another significant tournament.

The 116th U.S. Amateur Championship is coming to the Bloomfield Hills-based course Aug. 15-21 and will include 312 players from 20 countries. It marks the second U.S. Amateur — the first in 2002 — and the 11th United States Golf Association championship contested at Oakland Hills.

“Having the centennial is a pretty significant contribution in itself, but having the U.S. Amateur tied in with that really make it just a special year,” said Lee Juett, a longtime Oakland Hills Country Club member who is serving at the U.S. Amateur’s General Chairman.

“It is a major championship. Not everyone quite recognizes it as a major, but it is,” he said. “It’s a national championship and that’s how we’re treating it for sure.”

Juett said it was strictly coincidental that Oakland Hills, which was founded in 1916, was awarded the USGA’s U.S. Amateur during its historic anniversary.

“We had some discussions with the USGA back in the fall of 2010 and we had invited the USGA to look at our club as a possible host site for the Amateur,” said Juett, a Michigan State University graduate who has served in some capacity for every single championship Oakland Hills has hosted since 1972. “We didn’t identify 2016, but that was the one that was available and it worked out and made sense to us. We collectively worked it out and it’s very unique.”

Many of golf’s top professionals have played in the U.S. Amateur, billed as the oldest golf championship in America — one day older than the U.S. Open. That impressive list includes Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Littler, Mark O’Meara, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

In 2002 at Oakland Hills, Ricky Barnes defeated Hunter Mahan, 2&1, in the traditional 36-hole final. The defending champion is California native Bryson DeChambeau, who became just the fifth player to capture the NCAA championship and the U.S. Amateur title in the same year.

The world’s current No. 1 ranked amateur is Stanford University senior Maverick McNealy who made the round of 16 at last year’s U.S. Amateur played at Olympia Fields in Illinois.

McNealy is looking forward to playing at Oakland Hills as his father Scott, a Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood graduate, will serve as his caddy. The 20-year-old California native who is a big hockey fan led the U.S. to the 2015 Palmer Cup crown.

“My dad told me it’s a hard golf course, and we’re no strangers to the history (of Oakland Hills),” said McNealy by conference call during Tuesday’s press conference. “I’m really excited to get out there and play it for real, play it myself. I will be interested to see what my dad thinks has changed, or what he see is different, since he played it.

“My dad has caddied for me in the 2014 U.S. Open and he’s caddied for me in a bunch of amateur events and it’s always fun for me to have him on the bag,” he said. “We’re really excited to get out there and I’m really excited to play the two golf courses.”

The U.S. Amateur consists of 36 holes of stroke play which will take place on both the South and North courses over the first two days. The low 64 scorers advance to match play which will include six rounds, the final of which occurs on Sunday, Aug. 21.

While membership par is 72, both the South and North courses will play at par-70 for the amateur as two par fives on each course will be scaled down to par fours. The North Course will play at 6,849 yards while the longer championship South Course will feature a 7,334-yard layout.

The unique feature of any U.S. Amateur is the gallery can literally follow in the players’ footsteps, walking right along with them on the fairway if they so choose throughout the seven days of competition.

“The most unique thing about the tournament is that you get to walk right next to the guys who are playing and as they are picking out their clubs,” said Juett, who is overseeing a cast of some 1,250 volunteers. “There is very limited ropes. Some of the greens will be protected, but otherwise you can walk right down the fairways. For all the spectators who come out, they will get an up-close and personal view of these world class players.”

This will be just the fourth U.S. Amateur to be played in Michigan, the other two at the The Country Club of Detroit in 1915 and 1954. Robert A. Gardner won the 1915 tournament and Arnold Palmer won in 1954.

Oakland Hills has been the site of six U.S. Opens, three PGA championships, two U.S. Senior Opens, the U.S. Women’s Amateur, the Western Open and the Ryder Cup.

“As the chairman, I’m personally very excited about the tournament and the members are as well,” said Juett. “We think there is energy and excitement, in the Detroit area, in Birmingham and Bloomfield area for major golf for sure.”

Gearing for the amateurs

WHAT: 116th U.S. Amateur Championship

WHERE: Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills

WHEN: Aug. 15-21 (match play semifinals on Aug. 20; 36 hole final set for Aug. 21)

WHO: The tournament field consists of 312 of the world’s top amateurs representing 20 countries.

TICKETS: Tickets are $20 (single-day grounds) and $75 for a weekly pass; Military personnel and students receive free admission with a valid ID. Tickets available online at 2016usamateur.com